Trump and Clinton Tax Plans Provoke Mixed Reactions

[IMGCAP(1)]Although the tax positions of the two major candidates would face major hurdles before either one becomes law, interested observers have wasted no time in dissecting them, praising them or pointing out defects.

Here are some of the reactions:

Urban Institute Research Report: “Hillary Clinton proposes raising taxes on high-income taxpayers, modifying taxation of multinational corporations, repealing fossil fuel tax incentives, and increasing estate and gift taxes. Her proposals would increase revenue by $1.1 trillion over the next decade. Nearly all of the tax increases would fall on the top 1 percent; the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers would see little or no change in their taxes. Marginal tax rates would increase, reducing incentives to work, save, and invest, and the tax code would become more complex.”

John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority: “It’s a myth that the very top tax rates have an impact on small business, because only a minuscule number of small businesses are paying taxes at the top rate.”

Juanita Duggan, president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business (reacting to Trump’s recently re-tooled tax plan): “Mr. Trump’s plan would eliminate the disparity between the way large corporations and small businesses are treated under the code and all businesses would be taxed at a substantially lower rate. Those reforms would encourage more small business investment, job creation, and economic growth.”

American Enterprise Institute scholar Matt Jensen: “If Trump’s team is serious about cutting the cost of his tax plan from $10 trillion to $3 trillion, we should expect many more changes to be forthcoming, because the rate schedule tweaks will only get him down to $6.7 trillion, at best. He may need to pare back the large expansion of the standard deduction.”

Dean Zerbe, national managing director of alliantgroup and former senior counsel on the Senate Finance Committee: “To have Trump’s tax plans emerging fully formed is pretty wild. He views his position as an opening bid. He likes to put down strong positions to make a point —I get it, he wants to cut taxes.”

Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at Wolters Kluwer: “Trump’s plan is short on the pay-fors, but the Clinton plan is short on details in some respects as well. Trump’s plan goes beyond the House Republican plan in its concept of not just lowering the corporate tax rate, but lowering the business income tax rate to 15 percent. The fact that the ordinary income rate goes up to 33 percent under the plan creates a real incentive for a sole proprietor or pass-through to shift what would otherwise be ordinary income into business income.”

Tom Wheelwright, founder and chief executive of accounting firm ProVision: “Why does Warren Buffett want Trump to release his tax returns? Simply because Buffet knows that the way the tax law works, it’s unlikely that Trump pays much, if anything, in taxes. The tax law is set up to heavily reward real estate investors. So it is likely that Trump pays an even lower tax rate than Buffett or Mitt Romney.”

Gary DuBoff, principal at MBAF: “Taxpayers living in places such as New York City, and those in California, already have a higher tax burden than most of the country. The Clinton proposal would put those taxpayers at a combined federal, state and local income tax rate on ordinary income at almost 60 percent. Coupled with Social Security and Medicare, property taxes and sales taxes, living on one of those coasts would make wealthy citizens among the highest taxed people in the world.”

Barbara Weltman, author of the J.K. Lasser tax manuals: “I like the tax reform we had under Reagan when we had two brackets, then three. Simplification and lower taxes would be a boon to small businesses.”

As the polling data changes and one candidate or the other appears closer to victory, there are those who might become overly concerned about the prospects of one or the other plan actually making it into law. For them, Roger Harris, president of Padgett Business Services, has comforting words: “How many political speeches ever became tax law?”